Killington (USA) (AFP)
Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the Killington Slalom at home in Vermont on Sunday, her 62nd win in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Thanks to this fourth success on the Superstar track (after 2016, 2017 and 2018), she joins Austria's Annemarie Moser-Pröll in the list of the most successful World Cup skiers in fourth place behind Austrian Marcel Hirscher (67), the American Lindsey Vonn (82) and Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark (86).
Shiffrin had already set the fastest time of the first run, on a track where she never left the win to her opponents between tight pickets since she entered the World Cup program.
With a margin of 1 sec 13 over Slovak Petra Vlhova before tackling the second run, she could have managed but it's far from being in her temper, and she has made a big difference again on her rivals on the second pass.
She relegated Vlhova, 2nd in the race, to more than two seconds (+2.29), the Swede Anna Swenn Larsson completing the podium 2 sec 73 of the American.
In the finish area, Shiffrin took the opportunity to savor with the audience who came to see her, relieved to be at home again, a hundred miles from Burke Mountain Academy where she spent part of his childhood.
"It was really a very complicated race, I thought I was going out, I was really, really, at the limit, but the audience is so great, it took me down the track ", commented the 24-year-old American after the race.
She has increased her lead in the overall World Cup standings, almost 200 points ahead of Swiss Michelle Gisin, 9th Sunday in Killington.
© 2019 AFP